Semester II

Compulsory Papers:

Paper V
Literary Movements –II

Many distinct literary movements mark the journey of writing from ancient times to
the very contemporary. The paper identifies some of the major literary movements
that form the essential frame of reference for a critical engagement with the vast
corpus of literature. Movements such as classicism, romanticism or realism constitute
the primer of critical vocabulary and therefore a basic understanding of these
movements is necessary for a nuanced understanding of varieties of literary
articulation. Each movement has its own specific set of aesthetic, cultural and ethical
values and preferences. The writers and writings that fall within a movement, despite
their heterogeneity and particularities, do converge in terms of fostering an
identifiable literary taste and trend. Though these movements do occur in literatures
of the world, and across languages, yet the focus of this course is primarily on
European literature, with special accent on the British. The course is divided into five
units. Each unit consists of general introductory essays on the specific movement and
some primary texts that belong to the movement. The emphasis of the paper is on the
historical and conceptual understanding of various literary movements. The students
are expected to study the prescribed texts closely. The students are also expected to
study books and articles mentioned in the suggested readings to enhance their
understanding of the primary texts, but there will be no question on the suggested
readings. The paper shall consist of five compulsory questions – one each from a
unit. Each question shall however have internal choice. The paper shall carry a total
of 80 marks.

Unit I Realism

1. Ian Watt, “Realism and the Novel Form”, The Rise of the Novel,
(University of California Press, 2001) 11-36.
2. George Eliot, Chapter 17, Adam Bede, Volume 3,(William Blackwood and
Sons, 1859) 223-244.

Unit II Modernism
1. Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane, “The Name and Nature of
Modernism” from Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890-
1930, ed. By Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane (Penguin, 1976),
19-35.

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 2. Ezra Pound, “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste”,
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/58900/a-few-
donts-by-an-imagiste

Unit III Postmodernism

1. Linda Hutcheon, “Theorizing the Postmodern: Toward a Poetics”, A

Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction (Routledge, London &
New York, 1988) 3-21.
2. Ihab Hassan, “Toward a Concept of Postmodernism”, The Postmodern
Turn (Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1987) 1-10.
3. Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Library of Babel", Collected Fictions. Trans.
Andrew Hurley (New York: Penguin, 1998) 112-118.

Unit IV Postcolonialism

1. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin. Eds. “Introduction” to The

Empire Writes Back (Routledge: London & New York, 1991) 2002, 2nd
Ed. 1-13.
2. Ngugi wa Thiong’o ,”The Language of African Literature”, Decolonizing
the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (Harare:
Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1987) 1994 rpt. 3-33.

Unit V Debating ‘Periodization’ in History

1. Ted Underwood, “The Disciplinary Rationale for Periodization and a

Forgotten Challenge to It (1886–1949)”, Why Literary Periods Mattered:
Historical Contrast and the Prestige of English Studies (Stanford &
California: Stanford University Press, 2013) 114-135.
2. Eric Hayot, “Against Periodization; or, On Institutional Time”, New
Literary History, Vol. 42, No. 4, (Autumn 2011), 739-754.

Secondary Readings
• Ann L. Ardis, Modernism and Cultural Conflict, 1880-1922 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• Bill Ashcroft, Key Concepts in Post-colonial Studies (London & New
York: Routledge, 1998)
• Chris Baldick, The Modern Movement: 1910-1940 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2004)
• Norman F Cantor. Twentieth-Century Culture: Modernism to
Deconstruction (Peter Lang, 1988)
• Peter Childs. Modernism (London & New York, Routledge, 2000)
• Leela Gandhi, Postcolonial Theory (Allen & Unwin, 1998)

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 • Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism (London & New York:
Routledge 1998)
• Pam Morris, Realism: The New Critical Idiom (London & New York:
Routledge, 2006)
• Dennis Walder, The Realist Novel (London & New York: Routledge,
1995)
• Ira Mark Milne, Project Editor, Literary Movements for Students (Gale
Cengage Learning, 2009)
• John McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism (Delhi:Viva Books, 2000)

Model Paper

Literary Movements II
Time: 3 hours Total Marks 80
Note: Attempt all questions. Each question carries 16 marks

Q.1 What is realism? How does it lead to the rise of novel?

Or
How does George Eliot approach the need of realism in fiction? Answer your
question in the light of arguments made in Chapter 17 of her novel Adam Bede.

Q. 2 What are the general features of ‘modernism’? How does it shape literature in
the first half of twentieth century?
Or
Discuss in detail the role of Ezra Pound’s theory of imagism. How did it influence the
aesthetics of modern poetry?

Q. 3 How does Linda Hutcheon sum up the poetics of postmodernism?

Or
How is postmodernism different from modernism? Discuss Ihab Hasan’s formulations
in this context.

Q.4 What do you mean by the expression “empire writes back”? Discuss the political
implications of writing back.
Or
Does writing in a native tongue decolonize mind?

Q. 5 What are the limitations of writing literary history in terms of periods?

Or
Choose any one literary movement and map its scope and limitations.
****

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Paper VI
Approaches to Literary Criticism – II
The objective of the course is to familiarize students with various approaches to
literature, and the particular worldviews these are based on. The students should able
to relate literary texts to their lives in terms of their own times and location. The
number of approaches suggest that there is no one privileged way to understand a text,
and that a text can yield multiple meanings if it is accessed through different
worldviews. Each approach has a claim to total meaning till it is countered by another
equally compelling approach. Each approach has its own well-argued theoretical base,
a set of tested tools and a sustained methodology to help the student to navigate
through the text with a degree of precision. These approaches put together give rise to
what is often called as critical pluralism. The paper shall consist of five questions of
16 marks each, one from each unit. The questions shall be designed in such a way that
they focus more on the candidate’s understanding of the issues involved in literary
studies, and not just his/her capability for memorizing information. Also, there should
be questions of a practical nature in which the candidate has to apply his/her
analytical skills to literary texts. Each question shall have internal choice, and is to be
answered in 500-600 words. The paper shall carry a total of 80 marks.

Unit I
1. Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle,“The beginning,” “Readers and reading,”
“The author,” and “The text and the world”, An Introduction to Literature,
Criticism and Theory (Pearson Longman, 2004, 3rd Edition) Chapters 1-4 (1-
33).

Unit II
1. Terry Eagleton, “Literature and History”, Marxism and Literary Criticism
(London & New York: Routledge: 1976), 1-9.

Unit III
1. Wilfred L. Guerin et al, eds., “Feminism and Gender Studies (I, II, III, IVA,
IVB, V)” A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature (Oxford: OUP,
2005) 5th Ed.
2. Charlotte Krolokke and Ann Scott Sorensen, “Three Waves of Feminism:
From Suffragettes to Grrls”, Gender Communication Theory and Analyses:
From Silence to Performance (Thousand Oaks, London & New Delhi: SAGE,
2006) 1-24.

Unit IV
1. Chapter 9 of Wilfred Guerin’s Handbook: Cultural Studies (I, II, IIIA, IIIB)
2. Stuart Hall, “The Formation of Cultural Studies”, Cultural Studies 1983: A
Theoretical History (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2016) 5-24.

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Unit V

1. Chapter 10 of Wilfred Guerin’s Handbook: The Play of Meanings (I, II, III)
2. Umberto Eco, “The Open Work”, The Open Work, trans. Anna Cancogni
(Cambridge & Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1989) 1-23.

Suggested Readings

1. Andrew Bennett, and Nicholas Royle, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism

and Theory (Pearson, 2004) (Third Edition is availableonline)
2. David Lodge, ed. 20th Century Literary Criticism: A Reader (Longman, 1989)
3. David Daiches, Critical Approaches to Literature, 2nd ed. (Orient Longman,
1970)
4. M.A.R. Habib. A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the Present
(Blackwell, 2005)
5. Patricia Waugh, Literary Theory & Criticism: An Oxford Guide (Oxford:
OUP, 2006)
6. M. S Nagarajan, English Literary Criticism & Theory: An Introductory
History. (Orient Longman, 2006)
7. David Robey and Ann Jefferson. Modern Literary Theory (Batsford, 1986)
8. Frank Lentriccia. After the New Criticism (Chicago: Chicago UP, 1980)
9. Hans Bertens, Literary Theory: The Basics (London & New York: Routledge,
2003)
10. Peter Barry, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary & Cultural
Theories, 2nd ed. (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2004)
11. Raman Selden, A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory (Pearson,
2006)

Model Paper

Time: 3 hours Total Marks 80

Note: Attempt all questions. Each question carries 16 marks

Q. 1. How does a literary text multiply its beginning(s)?

Or
What is meant by “framed acts of reading”? Discuss the number of frames suggested
by Andrew Bennet in this context.

How important is the place of history in approaching a literary

text? Or

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How does Terry Eagleton theorize the relationship of history with literature and vice
versa?

Feminism as a movement has undergone many phases. Delineate these

phases with examples from literary texts.
Or
Literary texts are invariably gendered and therefore are always implicated in the
politics of gender. Discuss feminist approach to literature in this regard.

Discuss the methodological conundrums of the project of cultural

studies. Or
Explain critically the rise of cultural studies as a project in Britain and later on across
the globe.

Why does Umberto Eco describe text as “an open

field”? Or
Does a literary text yield any essential meaning or does it engender many possibilities
of meaning. Argue.

****
Paper VII
(Choose any one of the options)

(1) Cultural Studies – II

There are cultures within culture. The objective of the paper is to explore these
various layers of cultures that begin to emerge due to intervention of new
technologies in the lives of people. From a canonical understanding of culture, the
paper moves on to unfold the arrival of popular culture, and within it various other
subcultures that playfully subvert the dominance of the classical culture. The paper
also provides a critical perspective on other shades of culture such as ‘mass culture’
or ‘celebrity culture’ that in the name of entertainment, pleasure or leisure often
stupefy masses into a mode of uncritical consumerism. The paper introduces the
students to some of the key theorists of the project of Cultural Studies such as Stuart
Hall, John Fiske, Adorno and Habermas. The units contain essays both of theoretical
and illustrative nature.

Unit I Popular Culture

1. Stuart Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing the Popular”, People’s History and

Socialist Theory, ed. Raphael Samuel (Routledge Revival: 1981) 227-241.
2. John Fiske “Medonna”, Reading the Popular (London & New York:
Routledge, 1989) 95-114.

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Q. 4 Explain Adorno's concept of “Free Time”. Discuss the commodification of our
hobbies in the age of consumerism.
Or
How does Allen Swingewood theorize “mass society”?

“Celebrity culture is a phenomenon that is simultaneously well known

and little known.” Discuss the implications of the statement in light of Ellis
Cashmore's prescribed essay.
Or
Discuss the role of media in fomenting ‘Celebrity’ Culture.

(2) Language and Linguistics – II

The aim of this paper is to develop an understanding of how language can be
described at the levels of phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. The English
language is to be studied as a reference point, while comparison and consideration of
structures in other languages will also be relevant. An important objective is the
development of a practical and analytical approach to the study of languages, while
extending the scope of linguistics to communication between languages, as in the
activity of translation.

Unit I Phonetics and Phonology

• Fromkin, Rodman &Hyames, “Phonetics: The Sound of Language”, An

Introduction to Language (Wadsworth 2010, 9th ed.) 189-215.
• Fromkin, Rodman &Hyames, “Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language”,
An Introduction to Language (Wadsworth 2010, 9th ed.) 224-263.

Unit II Morphology and Grammar

• Adrain Akmajian et al, “Morphology” (Chapter 2), Linguistics – An

Introduction to Language and Communication (MIT, 2010) 6th Ed., 13-66.
• Frank Palmer, Grammar(Penguin, 1971) rpt.1996, 9-40 & 149-194.
• Noam Chomsky, “The Theory of Transformational Generative Grammar”,
Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar (Moulton, 1978) 5th print, 51-75.

Unit III Semantics

• Adrain Akmaijian et al, “Semantics: The Study of Linguistic Meaning”

(Chapter 6),Linguistics –An Introduction to Language and Communication
(MIT, 2010) 6th Ed. 225-272.
• David Crystal, “Semantics” (Chapter 17) The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of
Language (CUP, 1997) 42-49.

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 • John Lyons, “Part 2 Lexical Meaning”, Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction
(Cambridge University Press, 1995) 2005 rpt.,46-71.

Unit IV Pragmatics

• J. Habermas, “What is Universal Pragmatics?” On the Pragmatics of

Communication (MIT, 1988) 21-104.
• Kent Back, “Speech Acts and Pragmatics”, The Blackwell Guide to the
Philosophy of Language, edited Michael Devitt and Richard Hanley
(Blackwell, 2006) 147-167

Unit V Translation
• Peter Newmark, “Theory and Craft of Translation”, Language Teaching /
Volume 9 / Issue 01 / January 1976, 5 – 26.
• Peter Newmark, “Translating Methods” (45-53), “Literal Translation” (68-
80), “The Other Translation Procedures” (81-93), A Textbook of Translation
(Prentice Hall, 1988).
• J.C Catford, A Linguistic Theory of Translation (OUP, 1967) 20-72.

Suggested Readings
• John R. Searle, Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language
(Cambridge University Press, 1970).
• M. A.K. Halliday, Jonathan J. Webster, On Language and Linguistics
(Continuum, 2006).
• Hadumod Bussmann, Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
(Routledge, 1999).
• David Crystal,The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (Cambridge
University Press, 1997).
• James S. Holmes (ed.), The Nature of Translation: Essays on the Theory and
Practice of Literary Translation (Walter de Gruyter, 1970).
• Chris Fox, Shalom Lappin, The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2015).
• John Lyons, Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction (Cambridge University
Press, 1996).
• Yehuda N. Falk, Subjects and Universal Grammar: An Explanatory Theory
(Cambridge University Press, 2006).
• Noam Chomsky, Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar (De Gruyter
Mouton, 1978).
• Thomas R. Hofmann, Realms of Meaning: An Introduction to Semantics
(Routledge, 1993).
• Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures, 2nd Edition (Mouton de Gruyter,
2002).

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 • Bas Aarts, David Denison, Evelien Keizer, Gergana Popova-Fuzzy Grammar:
A Reader (Oxford Univ Press, 2004).
• Geert Booij, The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Linguistic
Morphology (Oxford University Press, 2005).
• Richard J Bernstein, The Pragmatic Turn (Wiley_Polity, 2010).
• Paul Cobley (edt.), The Routledge Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics,
(Routledge. 2005).
• Daniel Weissbort, Astradur Eysteinsson (edt.), Translation-Theory and
Practice: A Historical Reader (OUP, 2006).
• David Crystal, Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar
(Oxford University Press, 2017).
• Gould Brown, The Grammar of English Grammars (Amazon Digital Services,
2004).
• M.A.K. Halliday: Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of
Language and Meaning (Edward Arnold, 1978).
• Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works, (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009).
• Jean Piaget, The Child's Conception of the World (Routledge & Kegan Paul
Ltd.,1929).

Model Paper

Time: 3 hours Total Marks 80

Note: Attempt all questions. Each question carries 16 marks

Q. 1 What are speech sounds? How do we classify vowel and consonant sounds?
Or
Define phonology. Discuss phonemes as the phonological units of language.

Q. 2 How does Morphology help to understand the structure of complex words?

Or
Give a critical account of Transformational Generative Grammar.

Q. 3. What is meaning? What are the different approaches to the study of meaning in
language.
Or
Define Semantics. Discuss the following semantic concepts with examples:
I) Synonymy and Antonymy
II) Homonymy and Polysemy

Q. 4 Discuss in detail Habermas’s concept of Universal pragmatics.

Or
Explain critically Austin’s idea of “doing things with words.

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Hard Times has many striking images. The use of agricultural images, in particular,
lends thickness to the texture of the novel. Argue through citation of textual
references.

Q. 3. Ruskin’s Unto this Last combines ethics with economics. Argue.

Or
Critically analyze Matthew Arnold' s “Barbarians, Philistines and Populace”. Bring
out the elitist biases of Arnold.

Q. 4 The Time Machine is traditionally identified as science fiction. Is it possible to

see it as a horror story?
Or
What are the qualities that make the Time Traveller a sympathetic, if flawed character
in the story?

Q. 5 Critically analyze Dracula’s lines, “Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it
from the past.” Does he have a tragic love story in the past? At what points in the
novel does Stoker seem to elicit the reader's sympathy for Dracula?
Or
Discuss the structure of the novel Dracula. Why do you think Stoker chose to
construct it as a series of journal entries and letters from multiple points of view?

****
Paper VIII
(1) Introduction to Literary Genres – II
Despite distinction of idiom, expression and style, writers over the years have
operated through a gamut of settled conventions, modes and genres. The paper will
introduce students to some of the major genres that emerged and ossified during and
after 18th century in Europe and elsewhere. Even as these genres almost overwhelmed
the literary space, posing a challenge to the entrenched classical modes, their presence
in current literary history is no less important. The effort is to provide a brief
overview of each selected genre in terms of its historical evolution and its basic
characteristics. Each unit consists of critical essay(s) and corresponding literary
text(s) so that the students are able to relate theory with practice.

Unit I Mock Epic

1. Ritchie Robertson, “Elements of Mock-Epic”, Mock-Epic Poetry: From Pope
to Heine (Oxford: OUP, 2009) 35-70.
2. Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, The Rape of the Lock and Other
Major Writings (Penguin Classics, 2011).

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Unit II Novel

1. George Lukacs, The Theory of Novel (Cambridge and Massachusetts: MIT

Press, 1971, 1st Edition) 56-84.
2. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Penguin Classics, 2003).

Unit III Essay

1. G Doughlas Atkins, “In-Betweeness: The Burden of Essay”, Tracing the

Essay: From Experience to Truth (Athens & London: The University of
Georgia Press, 2005) 145-162.
2. Johnson, Samuel. “The Rambler No. 184.” 1751. Quotidiana. Ed. Patrick
Madden. 12 Mar 2007. 05 Jul 2018
<http://essays.quotidiana.org/johnson/rambler_no_184/>
3. Addison, Joseph. “On the essay form.” 1711. Quotidiana. Ed. Patrick Madden.
18 Jan 2007. 05 Jul 2018 <http://essays.quotidiana.org/addison/essay_form/>
4. Lamb, Charles. “The genteel style in writing.” 1833. Quotidiana. Ed. Patrick
Madden. 25 Feb 2007. 05 Jul 2018
<http://essays.quotidiana.org/lamb/genteel_style_in_writing/

Unit IV Gothic

1. David Punter and Glennis Byron, “Gothic in the Eighteenth Century”, The
Gothic (Blackwell Publishing, 2004) 7-12.
2. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein (Penguin Classics, 1985).

Unit V Tragicomedy

• John Orr, “Modernism and Tragicomedy”, Tragicomedy and Contemporary

Culture (London: Macmillan, 1991) 1-10.
• Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (New York: Grove Press, 1954).

Suggested Readings:

• Verna A Foster, The Name and Nature of Tragicomedy (Routledge: London &
New York, 2017).
• Karl Siegfried Guthke,Modern Tragicomedy: An Investigation into the Nature
of the Genre (Random House, 1966).
• David L. Hirst,Tragicomedy(Methuen, 1984).
• Andrew Smith, Gothic Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press,
2007).

46
 • Michael Edwards, “A Meaning for Mock-Heroic”, Poetry and Possibility
(London: Macmillan, 1988) 32-51.
• T.W.Adorno, Bob Hullot-Kentor, Fredric Will, “The Essay as Form”, New
German Critique, No. 32 (Spring-Summer, 1984) 151-171.
• Catherine Spooner and Emma McEvoy, eds.,The Routledge Companion to
Gothic (London & New York: Routledge, 2007).
• Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London & New York: Verso,
2nded 2006).
• Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays (Texas: University
of Texas Press, 2008 17th Ed.).
• Frank Humphrey Ristine, English Tragicomedy: Its Origin and History (The
Columbia University Press, 1910) 1-25.

Model Paper
Time: 3 hours Total Marks 80
Note: Attempt all questions. Each question carries 16 marks

What are the elements of mock-epic? Use Richie Robertson’s prescribed

essay to trace the rise of this genre.
Or
Discuss the nature of super-natural machinery in The Rape of the Lock.

Why does Lucas term novel as a genre of exile from

transcendence? Or
Discuss Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe as a new form of narrative that foregrounds this-
worldliness of human experience.

Q. 3 Why does G Douglas Atkins attribute “In-Betweeness” to the genre of essay?

Or
Discuss the differences in style and content of essays of Addison and Charles Lamb.

Q. 4 What do you mean by gothic art? Differentiate gothic fiction from mainstream
fiction.
Or
Critically discuss Frankenstein as a gothic novel.

Q. 5 Modern plays are neither tragic nor comic. Argue with the help of suitable
examples.
Or
Discuss Waiting for Godot as a tragi-comedy.

****

47